Wilson's petrel. 517 



while sailing up the British Channel. The muscles about 

 the wings of these specimens, which I examined closely, were 

 still soft and moist. I was told that these two birds had 

 been caught by the captain himself, from the stern of his 

 ship, with a baited hook at the end of a long slender line of 

 thread. These are the specimens referred to by the Rev. L. 

 Jenyns, in his British Vertebrata. When the wind blows 

 hard Storm Petrels are known to seek some protection from 

 the gale they are unable to withstand, by flying for hours 

 under the lee, or in the wake of a ship. Their swallow-like 

 appearance, and their gentle habits inviting commiseration, 

 they are frequently fed by throwing small pieces of fatty sub- 

 stances towards them, which the hungry birds eagerly pick up 

 from the surface of the water, and sometimes, it appears, to 

 their own destruction. 



' In November, 1838, a specimen of Wilson's Petrel was 

 found dead in a field near Polperro, in Cornwall, and a notice 

 of the occurrence was published in the second volume of the 

 Annals of Natural History, by Mr. Couch, who very kindly 

 sent the bird when preserved up to me, that I might take a 

 drawing from it as a British specimen. In the spring of 

 1839, Mr. Charles Buxton, of Norfolk, sent me notice of one 

 obtained in that county. I received notice of one also from 

 T. C. Heysham, Esq., of Carlisle ; and last year a specimen 

 was procured in Sussex, for a knowledge of which I am in- 

 debted to Mr. F. Bond. Other examples have probably oc- 

 curred, but have not, perhaps, been distinguished by those 

 into whose hands they may have fallen. That they might be 

 distinguished in America was the object intended by the 

 Prince of Canino, when publishing his memoir. The portion 

 relating to Wilson's Petrel was afterwards republished in this 

 country, in the first volume of the Zoological Journal, p. 425. 

 Mr. Audubon, says, " Wilson's Petrel breeds on some 

 small islands situated off the southern extremity of Nova 



